Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices

A run through of some of the main recommendations of The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices which was published on 11th July 2017.

Matthew Taylor was appointed by the Government to conduct an independent review of how employment practices need to adapt to fit in with the way modern businesses are run. The report makes a number of recommendations designed to improve working conditions of atypical workers (e.g. casual workers) and individuals working in the gig economy.

The recommendations include:

The current legal framework needs to adapt to reflect emerging business models so there is greater clarity in relation to employment status. The worker category should be re-named ‘dependant contractor’ and there should be less emphasis on personal service, and more emphasis on control.

It should be a statutory requirement for businesses to provide a written statement of terms of dependent contractors on day one of their job.

Bring in a stand-alone right for individuals to make a claim in the employment tribunal for compensation if they are not given a written statement of terms. At present, there is no stand-alone claim for compensation; employees can be awarded compensation for failure to provide a written statement where they have also made a successful claim for unfair dismissal, discrimination, etc.

In relation to zero-hours contracts, the review recommended a higher rate of national minimum wage for hours not guaranteed by the individual’s contract and for individuals in the post for 12 months they should have the right to request guaranteed hours which better reflect the hours worked.

Give dependent contractors the chance to receive rolled-up holiday pay. This is currently prohibited.

Pay SSP to all workers no matter how much they earn, but accrue it based on length of service.

Require certain businesses to publish information on the number of requests they have received (and number agreed) from agency workers for permanent positions.

To increase the ‘voice’ that workers have in the workplace by examining how effective the Information and Consultation Regulations 2004 are, and consider lowering the threshold for the number of employees that wish to implement an information and consultation arrangement from 10% to 2%.

Comment

It is important to keep the review in perspective as it contains recommendations which will require consultation before any new law is drafted. We will have to wait and see which of these recommendations the Government pushes forward. Some commentators believe that we will see consultations being published in Autumn 2017. We will report further on any developments.

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